Remember how I said that I was planning to shorten the period between blood tests to around 2 weeks to make it easier to adhere to whatever experiment I was working on because whenever I aimed for a full 30 days life managed to get in the way?
Well life got in the way this time too. I had a family emergency that required immediate travel out of the country which threw a wrench in whatever blood tests I had planned.
Despite having to book last minute tickets and arrange for last minute visa’s… a small part of my brain was still keeping track of my cholesterol experiment.
In my most recent cholesterol update from January 2017, I was following the Whole 30 diet while taking 500 mg of Berberine 2 times a day, which lead to a 9% improvement in my LDL-P and a 22% improvement in my Small LDL-P.
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I wondered what would happen if I increased my dose of Berberine to 500 mg 3 times a day.
After I packed my suitcase, I threw in a couple of bottles of Berberine to ensure the continuity of this experiment overseas despite dealing with a family crisis (the experiment must go on!).
The only other supplement supplements worthwhile bringing were curcumin and fish oil capsules. One can never have enough anti-oxidants, especially in foreign lands.
Given the circumstances, I was eating anything BUT Whole 30. Carbs, gluten, foods cooked in vegetable oils, and whatever else that was placed in front of me were consumed.
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Results
And as always, for historical context:
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Any Changes?
LDL-P: Stayed essentially unchanged at 1822
Small LDL-P: Dropped even further to 589 from 770, for a loss of 24%
LDL-C: Dropped slightly to 140 from 153, for a loss of 8%
Triglycerides: Slightly back up to 84 from 71
HDL-C: Unchanged at 49
Total Cholesterol: Slightly decreased to 206 from 216.
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Final Thoughts
Wow. While the LDL-P didn’t really changed, I definitely got excited about the decrease in my Small LDL-P where I saw an additional 24% improvement. Simply taking Berberine 500 mg 3 times a day brought me down from 984 to 589 for an overall decrease of 40%, where it’s only 60 points from being in the normal range! This is pretty significant if you ask me and really makes me think that it’s something I should be taking regularly.
Ok… now time to test Bergamot. I’ll be withdrawing Berberine from my regimen and only taking Bergamot 500 mg twice a day. Let’s see what happens.
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Have you checked you A1C or fasting glucose lately? I ask because Berberine will lower blood sugar like Metformin. If you stop taking Berberin eI hope your blood sugar isn’t affected.
I’ve been checking my fasting sugars and they’ve ranged from 80-100 lately.
Haven’t really noticed a difference with the Berberine, but then again, hypoglycemia has never been a real issue for me.
Looks like old threads are locked, so I’m responding to your questions here. I don’t know how accurate the EverlyWell tests are – they did claim to test LDL directly. I figured that even if they were off a decent amount, the best case is that I’ve shown no improvement…worst case, it’s not a good picture.
I’m not sure exactly how many carbs, but I’d guess close to 250g/day with 35g+ of that being fiber from sprouted grain cereal and oat bran.
Only other thing I forgot to mention was that I gave blood a few days before. Even if that caused a temporary drop in all cholesterol, I need to get the triglycerides down.
I have been following your cholesterol journey for some time, as I am in the same boat. Awesome work. I was curious what you thought of the Pauling Therapy? Thanks
Have to admit, I’m not too familiar with the Pauling Therapy. What exactly is it?